WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

Reflections of a Working-Class Academic
gargantuan compared to my small stature. Nevertheless, I knew little about
the magnitude of production—only that my mother worked there. While she
was at work, I spent my hours at a church-run day care and preschool program
in the east end of Newport News. This is where I learned to hit back. There
were a few kids who sometimes picked on me. Whenever I went crying to the
teacher, she told me to hit back—advice never doled out today. Nevertheless, in
working-class communities an individual gains respect when he or she confronts
an individual who initiates a challenge or threat. The fact I was the only white
girl in the program highlights the relevance of both social class and race.
While middle-class women were becoming empowered through employment
during the second-wave feminist era of the 1960s and 1970s, a large share of
working-class minority women were employed outside the home in positions
ranging from domestic servants to factory production workers—the result of
discrimination and economic necessity.
THE ROAD TO COLLEGE: WHY THEY ARE CALLED CLASSROOMS
During my many years of formal education, I was never exposed to the
wealth of research showing that lower-income and working-class children are
far less likely to attend college than children of middle- to upper-class parents.
Schools are not in the business of raising class consciousness, notwithstanding
their role in perpetuating the class system. Likewise, I did not know that the
type of college or university people attend closely correlates with their social
class origins. For example, few working-class and low-income students attend
the country’s elite universities (Aronowitz, 2004; Oldfield, Candler, & Johnson,
2006; Raines & McAdams, 2006).
“Concerted cultivation” (Bourdieu, 1989) describes parenting tactics aimed
at childhood development within the long-term strategy of raising a youngster’s
odds of getting into a top college. Concerted cultivation did not exist in my
household. My mother did not have money to buy me ballet lessons, music
instruction, and other “valued” cultural learning that would greatly improve my
social mobility odds. When she arrived home, she was too tired to participate
in activities such as PTA or serve as a Girl Scout troop leader. Who could
blame her? Her job was physically demanding, and she had to endure all those
sweltering summers and frigid winters.
As a widow, my mother received $165.00 a month in supplemental
security income (SSI) through the Social Security Administration. During the
Reagan administration, she received a letter saying her SSI might be reduced or
eliminated. I was 15 years of age, and she informed me I should find work. My
first job was summer employment as a clerk at a video store. The location was
a 45-minute bus ride away; and once school started, I began looking for work
closer to home. That October, I took a job as a waitress at an old-fashioned
lunch counter diner in a pharmacy. I worked there for 7 years, beginning in high
Journal of Public Affairs Education 19